Father Eusebio Kino was an early Jesuit missionary priest in northwestern Mexico. In 1687, he was assigned to the Pimerķa Alta, the isolated Sonoran Desert region populated by Indians the Spaniards called Pimas, Papagos, and Sobaipuris. Kino entered what is now Arizona in 1691, traveling through unknown lands without the usual military escort. He visited hundreds of villages and established 24 missions.
No structures of Kino's time have survived. Larger churches were built after his death by Jesuits, and later by Franciscans. See a tour of some of Sonora's and Arizona's mission churches of the Spanish Colonial Era.
